News 

Eco-Schools are marking the one-month milestone of our #StayConnected campaign. Using the best approaches in technology we believe that we can still work closely together whilst staying apart. With schools closed for the foreseeable future, Eco-Schools are determined to ensure that parents, teachers and pupils still get the most out of our programme and learn about the importance of looking after our local environment. More importantly, Eco-Schools has always played an important role in promoting the benefits for the mental health and well-being of people from feeling a connection with the environment.

Over the past four weeks we have been thrilled with the level of engagement from pupils, teachers and parents across Northern Ireland who have sent in their entries. Every week pictures are posted on social media with our Facebook and Twitter pages sharing some of the best. We have asked families to take up baking in order to reduce plastic packaging. We have also tried to get pupils to listen out for local nature on their daily exercises. This week we are asking our followers to create their own storyboard to share their key environmental message.

All of these tasks are fun and interactive, keeping pupils active with schools off and also giving tasks that the entire family can enjoy together. This is all part of our programme’s goal of keeping people connected whilst we are all being asked to stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Speaking about this milestone, our Eco-Schools Project Officer, Dr Francesca Di Palo said;

“We are delighted with the response we have received so far for this campaign. Parents, pupils and teachers have engaged with such enthusiasm that it really gives us confidence that the values and goals of Eco-Schools can thrive even in the most difficult circumstances. I want to take this time to thank all of those who have taken part so far.

If you haven’t been following the challenges so far but still want to take part, don’t panic. All of our challenges are available on our website. You can also view them on our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages for you to read and take part. Just remember to tag our pages so we can spread the creativity far and wide. This is a positive campaign to keep people connected and everyone is welcome to join”